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Q: What will be the major growth drivers for the power sector in coming years?

  1. Overall growth rate of 8% in demand of power supply in various sectors of consumers.
  2. Development of industrial load in SEZ.
  3. Consumer expectations for better services leading to system reliability, automation, better maintenance practices.
  4. Political will to implement Private Sector investment through a transparent bidding process.
  5. Reliability and cost of fuel supply.
  6. Availability of transmission corridors for short term and long term Open Access.

Q: What are challenges that you foresee? How much growth you expect in the next five years?

  1. In Transmission, we expect to add transmission network consisting of 10,250 ckt kms of lines and 229 Sub-stations at various voltage levels to evacuate and transmit more than 8,000 MW in Gujarat which are coming up during the 11th Five Year Plan. Creation of network is quite challenging task at all voltage levels.
  2. Fuel supply in generation in terms of quantity and cost is the major challenge, since it determines and impacts tariff to the consumers.
  3. Growth of interstate, intrastate and distribution network must match to reach to the consumers.
  4. Grid operation is vital to maintain grid security and reliability under low frequency conditions due to demand - supply gap. Further, it is also quite challenging to handle load variation in monsoon season by backing down power plants.
  5. AT&C loss in the distribution network.
  6. At National level, tapping hydro potential will be crucial and issues relating to law and order, infrastructure and environment must be addressed first.
  7. Skilled & trained manpower.

Q: What are the prominent issues that have affected the power industry over the last ten years?

  1. Power sector is in the concurrent list of Indian constitution. Both central and state sectors must have common policy frame work and funding mechanism to invite private investment.
  2. Lack of funds in state sectors due to power theft and poor collection of bills from consumers.
  3. Mismanagement in operation of power plants to run at higher PLF.
  4. Mismatch in transmission and distribution network to reach consumer that is a precise reason in initiating APDRP in 2002-03.
  5. Supply of coal in terms of time, quantity and quality.
  6. Inadequate manufacturing capacities for power plant equipment mainly boiler and turbine. The only public sector available to-day in the country can deliver maximum 8,000 – 10,000 MW per year.

Q: What will be the impact of Nuclear Deal with NSG on the industry? What is likely to be the future scenario in terms of contribution to overall power generation etc.?

A: Impact depends upon the policy frame work of investment and model of technology transfer. No Indian company holds the technical capability and hence we have to depend upon import not only for capital equipment but for safe operation and maintenance of plants.

Our strategy should be to allow foreign investment along with technology transfer and development of manufacturing units within India in a phased manner.

There may not be major impact of Nuclear power in our total quantum of power by the time these nuclear plants come into operation. The expected quantum of 20,000 MW will constitute only 8-10% of installed capacity.

Q: In India, the huge amount of investment in power sector evaporates in the T&D losses. What are your views to overcome these losses?

T&D losses are mainly consist of technical and commercial losses and quantum is high in distribution network. To overcome these huge losses, distribution company needs to focus with a clear technical study and simultaneously tackle the issue of power theft.

In technical study, distribution network required to be studied for its current loading and power factors, which shall reveal the reactive power compensation needed. Energy accounting by installing meters at important interface point will help in comparing energy input with total energy accounted at various consumer points. There are many state of art technology available in the market but simple approach to study the network with energy accounting technique may work effectively and give quick results.

Segregation of agriculture and rural supply (house hold) feeders is done in Gujarat and it works very well for the benefit of both consumers and distribution companies since energy is effectively utilised and accounted in agriculture feeders for fixed hours of supply. It also helps in flatten the daily load curve of state.

Several other methods like use of insulated conductors in distribution line to prevent theft of power and replacing obsolete energy meters are also very helpful in reducing losses.

Q: Due to shortages of transmission capacity, still the interregional power transfer capacity is limited. What are your strategies to overcome?

A: Inter regional power transfer capability is being enhanced to 37000 MW by 2012 by identifying and installing vital transmission links. This is quite adequate and will help in operating grids of all five regions in synchronous mode.

Q: What are the top five priorities of your company? What are the measures taken by the company to explore opportunities?

  1. Transmission network development in the state to match the growth of main and sub-transmission system in terms of power handling capabilities of lines, redundancy level, MVA transformation capacities and reactive power management. (Control over T&D loss).
  2. Renovation and Modernisation (R&M) as we have more than 25% assets above the age of 25 years. This will have impact on availability factor of transmission system.
  3. Adoption of condition monitoring technique and upgrade skills to analyse data and predict faults.
  4. Timely completion of transmission projects – Project management to interface civil and electrical activities.
  5. Improve transmission line availability in coastal areas which are vulnerable to deterioration and tripping frequently.
  6. Training and development of Human Resources to realise and tap their potential.

We need to focus on those opportunities which help us in optimising resources, develop core competency, reduce transmission losses, enhance system availability and reliability, develop good vendors for long term business relationship.

We have taken measures by adopting R&M policy, vendor development policy, ERP project, system study group to update network plans periodically and suggest actions for network optimisation and reactive power managements. Technical institutions, R&D labs and in house capabilities are effectively utilised to upgrade skills.

Q: What according to you has been the key achievement in the past few years?

  1. Reduction in T&D loss to the level of 4% in transmission system.
  2. System availability of more than 99% by adopting periodic maintenance and R&M activities.
  3. Transmission network development by constructing 135 S/S along with 3186.6 ckt associated lines in last 3 years.
  4. Implementation of ERP modules in HR, store management, operation & maintenance and finance.
  5. In house capabilities to carry out condition monitoring, hot line maintenance including washing and analyse data for equipment failure for improvement.
  6. Execution of R&M activities as per the targets, spare management and store management.
  7. Excellent load management in grid operation by keeping balance between demand and supply.